Alexa Jones couldn’t hold back the tears as she described the terror she says she and her boyfriend experienced in Tampa over Gasparilla weekend.
She is shaken, still in disbelief.
Alexa and her boyfriend, Richie Hopper, say they were traumatized after attending ‘The Parade of Pirates’ along Bayshore Boulevard Saturday afternoon. This would be their third year traveling to Tampa. And their last.
The couple says they were walking on Bayshore near Brevard Avenue when a stranger grabbed Alexa around her waist and wouldn’t let go. As the man dragged the 18-year-old through the crowd, her boyfriend tried to save her.
Then a group of roughly five men and two women came out of nowhere. Richie would try to run, but it was too late. The group began beating him so badly, the young man was left unconscious and bleeding on the sidewalk.
“I don’t ever hope that someone has to through it, it truly is traumatizing,” Alexa told us. “It happened in pure daylight.”
Alexa said she was speechless and terrified as the love of her life lay lifeless. At first, he couldn’t open his eyes.
What just happened, she thought.
Alexa knew she had to act fast. As Richie slowly gained consciousness, she got him medical attention from first responders on scene and wanted to get him home.
She still has nightmares about that moment.
“There’s not a night I lay my head down that I don’t relive it, and I go through it every single night. if there’s one thing I want to come from this interview, it’s the fact that his family and I are not giving up hope. And, we’re not going to stop searching until they’re found,” she told WFLA.
Tampa Police are now searching for the suspects.
